


Threads of Fate

by Uskius



Series: Uskius Talex Fanfic [5]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Action/Adventure, Explicit Language, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 16:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4399076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uskius/pseuds/Uskius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Those who previously seemed to be allies no longer seem to be so. Can Tobin, Alex and the team stop them in time?! In this story, the machinations of an immortal foe are uncovered... After checking out some of the other Talex fanfic out there, they seemed to be all girly and about emotions and stuff. SO! I decided to write some in my own special style. And be ready! This is the last of the five Talex fanfics I've written, and is the sequel to Legend of the Phoenix.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Threads of Fate

It was five thirteen in the evening, and Rick Steves was plotting to take over the world. There were lightnings flashing outside the window of his formidable mountain keep, and he contemplated the alignment of the cosmic anuses as he smoked a blunt hand-rolled by his manservant, Claude. Rick Steves knew things. He was the “someone” that people would say they knew someone knew; he was owed favors. From Bali to China, Uruguay to Manhasset in New York, there was no one who had knowings in the ways of diplomatics and travels who was more loved than him. And he hated this. Puffing out the smoke in the shape of a streetcar named Desire, he eyed a spot on the map of South America, and stuck a pin into it with finality.

~oOo~

It was a gray and rainy day, droplets of water coming down like unwanted relatives from up North. Many times Alex had slipped on the soccer pitch, but she had a strange and tough kind of likings for playings on a muddy field. The U.S. Women’s National soccer team was working a half-field scrimmage exercise, focusing on short and quick passes. “Tobin!” Alex called, kicking the ball back to her trusty friend as Meghan and Becky stepped forwards. Tobin made a surprise kick straight at Ali before Sydney came right in, getting the ball before Ali could field it. Sydney gave the ball a hard kick, driving it past Ashlyn as she dove for it.

“Nice one, Syd!” Ashlyn called as she dropkicked the ball back out. Morgan popped it up with a header, arcing it towards Alex’s side of the field. Meghan got to it before her, though, and was about to take it up the field when they heard someone shouting.

“Escuse me! Is Missus Ellis here?” Practice slowed down and stopped, and Coach Jill walked over.

“How can I help you, sweetie?” Asked Coach Jill, leaning down to talk with the young girl.

“This older man said that I, that I should give this ledder to you,” Said the young girl, sticking out the envelope. It wasn’t sealed, the plastic strip covering the adhesive not yet removed. Inside Coach Jill saw some paper, but the front was the most curious part: printed in Comic Sans, it read, “Dear Mrs. Ellis, please deliver this to 9001 Brimley Avenue. There are three round trip tickets to the area in the envelope; perhaps you could bring two of your players with you, such as Ms. Morgan or Ms. Heath.”

“Fan mail?” Asked Meghan, picking up the ball and walking over.

“No, it appears to be some sort of request. A very odd one.” As Coach Jill took out the tickets and inspected them, she handed the envelope to Meghan.

“I’m not getting a good feeling about this,” Sydney said. “First of all, it’s printed. Classic sign whoever sent this is up to no good.”

“The tickets are real, though.” Said Coach Jill. “I just checked them with that new scan to confirm feature the airline has, and they were purchased a few days ago.”

“But where’s Brimley Avenue, though?” Asked Alex. “That doesn’t sound like it’s from around here.”

“It’s not,” Replied Coach Jill. “It’s a few states over.” Checking an online map on her phone, after a moment she added, “It’s in the suburbs on the edge of the town.” She looked up at the team, and they all shared a look of nervousness.

“But, what exactly are we taking them, this mysterious person we’re supposed to be delivering to?” Alex asked. “It could be some kind of secret information, or-”

“It’s a printed online article from a foreign website,” Meghan said. The others looked at her. “What? The envelope wasn’t even sealed.”

“Doesn’t even look all that interesting,” Shannon said, looking over Meghan’s shoulder. “Just a few paragraphs and a picture of some trees.”

Coach Jill was holding her chin with concerned thinkings, staying silent for a few moments. “...Well, the plane tickets are real, expire tomorrow, and this is our last practice of the week. I say there’s no harm in taking it to the house.” Coach Jill looked up at the team. “Anyone want to come with me?”

~oOo~

“This the place?” The cab driver asked, looking over at Coach Jill.

“Nine thousand one Brimley Avenue,” Tobin said, Coach Jill nodding with agreements.

“Wait here for a few minutes,” Coach Jill told the cab driver, as everyone got unbuckled. The house didn’t look un-ordinary, it was a very plain brown brick on the outside. They could see a tall tree was in the back yard, sticking up over the roof. Coach Jill knocked on the front door, and Alex handed her the letter. They could hear someone jogging up to the door from inside, and a moment later the door was opened.

“Oh! Misses Ellis, what a surprise.” The Dubious Mechanic invited them in, clearly nervous. Tobin looked around, blinking. The walls were painted to look like a nice scene in the wild, done with a realisticness to the artistry, and there was green shag carpet, sorta like grass. “So, um,” The Dubious Mechanic swallowed, still obviously nervous.

“We were asked to give this to you,” Coach Jill said. She handed The Dubious Mechanic the envelope, and he studied it carefully. He took out the article, and scanned over it.

“Spanish…? Hold on-” Tobin and Alex felt a brief ripple in the weave of reality, detecting that The Dubious Mechanic was using the power that had taken the place of P.S.I. A laptop computer appeared on the coffee table, and The Dubious mechanic typed a long sentence. “...Paste that into there…” With a click, the task was done. The Dubious Mechanic read the article, and his face became frowny. “I think you guys might want to see this…” He turned the laptop so Coach Jill and Tobin and Alex could look.

“-The government was quick to agree, and the process has already progressed very far. The forest is expected to be named a UNESCO World Heritage Site within the month, and construction of the wildlife preserve and park to begin soon after.” Coach Jill folded her arms and leaned back, sighing.

“That article’s a few weeks old,” Tobin pointed out with sharp observings.

“You’re right,” The Dubious Mechanic agreed. He looked over to the side, and saw a related article. “...You have got to be kidding me.”

“A fence is one thing, but in _that_ shape?” Coach Jill added. The new article told of the planned paths and such for the park, and gave the outline of the fence as a fun afterthought.

“In any other forest in any other part of the world, this would just be a coincidence,” Said The Dubious Mechanic as he facepalmed. “But in _Nazca_? There’s no way that this is an accident.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Alex. The Dubious Mechanic glanced at Coach Jill, who nodded.

“...A few months ago, a package showed up on my doorstep. Inside was a flash drive with a conversation recorded on The Vatican Wire on it. It was a conversation between the pope and one of your teammates, Miss Averbuch, I think.”

“When did Yael talk with the pope?” Wondered Tobin.

“I’m guessing around the time of The Vatican Incident,” Answered The Dubious Mechanic, referring to when Tobin had been possessed by Lionel Messi and fired laser beams around the square. “Now, I’d heard how Maradona talked about a second, but I didn’t know exactly what he meant by that until I’d heard the conversation on the flash drive. They were talking about a second… a second Tree of Life. The second True Ballon d’Or was found in one of its fruit, as I’m sure you know. The conversation got long and philosophical, but the pope convinced Miss Averbuch that for the time being they should leave the tree alone. I think she said something like ‘you would have to be lost to find it’. But now…”

Alex looked down at the picture in the article. “But now there’s a fence in the forest in the shape of an arrow… pointing straight at it…” Alex shared a look with Tobin and Coach Jill, and suddenly The Dubious Mechanic stood up. A cell phone appeared in his his hand.

“Call Frank,” The Dubious Mechanic said to the phone. He handed the phone to Alex, and then began to walk away.

“Hold on, where are you going?” Alex asked.

The Dubious Mechanic paused and looked over his shoulder. “I’m going to the Nazca Forest to find that tree and cut it down.” A small booklet like a passport appeared in his hand, and then The Dubious Mechanic vanished.

“Hello?” Alex was startled by the voice, and looked down at the cell phone.

“Hello? May I ask who is speaking?” Coach Jill asked.

“You may call me Francis. I would also like to ask the same, as you do not sound like the man I gave the phone number to.”

“Francis?” Alex whispered to herself. It took a moment, but her her eyes went wide when she realized who they were on the phone with.

“This is Jill Ellis speaking,” Coach Jill answered.

“Oh, Misses Ellis! May I ask what the occasion for this call is?”

“Well, your number was dialed before we were given the phone, but I have a question. Do you know of the Tree in the Nazca Forest?”

“Ah. I presume you mean the second?”

Coach Jill nodded, and continued. “Yes, that’s the one. Your Holiness, we recently became aware that the fence of the national park in the Nazca Forest is in the shape of an arrow, presumably pointing in the direction of the Tree. Did you know of this?”

“No; I had heard of the park, but not the shape of the fence.” Pope Francis fell silent for a while before speaking again. “Misses Ellis, I have a favor to ask. I would like you to take your team to the area and guard the tree, until I have consulted with the cardinals and a number of other religious leaders and we have reached a decision on what should be done with the Tree. Would you be willing to do this?”

“How long would that take?” Alex asked.

“For your sake, I will try to do it with a video conference, so it may be no more than a fortnight or so.”

“But, sir, The Dubious Mechanic just left for Nazca to find the Tree and cut it down,” Tobin said.

“The Dubious Mechanic? Oh, you must mean him…” Pope Francis sighed. “Then I am afraid this has become an urgent matter. I apologize, but I would like an answer soon, Misses Ellis.”

Coach Jill thought with her arms folded, having a scowly thinking face. “We’ll do it, but only for two weeks, Your Holiness. We need time to prepare for the World Cup.”

“Very well. Keep this phone, so that we may stay in contact.”

“I will.”

“Thank you, Misses Ellis. Goodbye.” Coach Jill and Tobin and Alex sat looking down at the cell phone for a moment, before Coach Jill stood.

“Come on, ladies. It’s time to get moving.”

~oOo~

Hope looked back towards the rest of the team. “I can see the fence up ahead!”

“We’re on the right track, girls! Let’s keep going!” Said Christie. A couple minutes of tough walking through the forest later, and the team came to the fence. Alex could see it had a good height, about fifteen feet, all chainy and with wire on the top.

“Are we going to climb over, or what?” Asked Morgan, gesturing at the fence. The team was at a corner of the fence, with a pole in front of them.

They all looked around at each other for a moment before Abby spoke. “Easy: we’ll be going through it.” She walked up to the fence, focusing on the rainbowy threads of reality that made up the links, easing them apart with skillfulness. On the team, Abby had been one of the first to get a good grasp on this new power that had replaced P.S.I. The rest of the team walked through the gap, grateful the edges of the metal were smooth.

“I’ll put it back,” Alex whispered to Abby. Nodding, Abby walked on with the rest of the team. Alex closed her eyes, grasping the threads that made up the fence and weaving them together. Using her “dye”, which had the same quality as her P.S.I. once had, Alex created tiny and intense sparks of electricity that helped seal the fence shut again. When she opened her eyes the fence was in one piece, looking as if it had been welded shut. She smiled to herself, and caught up to the rest of the team.

“-We still don’t know too much of what he’s capable of,” Said Yael.

“We know he’s a mechanic,” Said Sydney.

“Well, of course, but beyond that. He’s apparently a mild-mannered engineering genius, and yet he has dozens of safehouses all around the world and no one even knows his real name,” Said Yael.

“And he has the pope in his cellphone as Frank, which is kinda suspect,” Alex put in.

“I think he’s just a mechanic to occupy himself,” Christie said, Tobin nodding with agreeances. “First, there’s what he did at Daneborg, and as soon as he learns about the fence, what does he do? Comes down here to find the Tree and cut it down. If we come across him out here we need to be prepared for anything.” The team had these tough words in mind as they continued the hike.

After several minutes, Alex sensed a sharp ping in the threads, and stumbled slightly. “Did anyone else feel that?” Several members of the team nodded, and they quickened their pace. Getting closer to the source of the first ping, Alex felt a few more, and then had recognizings of the forest. “We’re almost there! Let’s hurry!” The pings and snaps were almost constant now, and it was tough for the team to run as the fabric of reality shifted and moved around them.

When they came upon the open space the a small hill and the Tree were, it was filled with a starry darkness, The Dubious Mechanic at its center. Bits and pieces of rubble and shrubbery were floating loose and flying up, Alex realizing that they were being disconnected from the fabric that made up the forest floor. “Didn’t you use up the last of the energy?!” Christen asked Tobin.

“Definitely! That- that has to be his dye!” Tobin ran forwards, stumbling up the small hill. “Stop! You have to stop!”

“Don’t get too close, Tobin!” The Dubious mechanic said over his shoulder. “The Tree is a fundamental thread: when it cuts, this whole clearing is going with it!”

“You don’t have to do this!”

“Yes I do- this is the moment I was born for!” The pings and snaps and cuts increased then, but Tobin was able to make it to The Dubious Mechanic and tackle him away. “ _You are not going to stop me_!” He roared. Alex had the image of his fury burned into her eyes, and doubted she would be able to see him as the goofy and shy dude she had first met ever again. He began attacking Tobin, using a sharp and simple style. Tobin saw that he was very focused despite his rage, and began to get very serious. Again and again she struck, attacking the first opportunity she got. As the fight wore on, it began to become frustrating: she had evaded almost all his blows, but hers were having very little effect.

Alex had been creeping up the hill, keeping an eye on the duel. She was holding a stick filled with her dye, poised to strike. When The Dubious Mechanic shifted into a different position, she saw her chance and leapt forwards, poking him with the stick and focusing her dye into him. It crackled with electricity, and The Dubious Mechanic cried out. Tobin saw an good opportunity, and readied the strike. “Triple Punch!” Alex saw one blow, but heard three impacts, ones which sent The Dubious Mechanic flying past her.

With a shuddering thump, the snaps and pings stopped, and The Dubious Mechanic’s dye washed away from the area. He coughed, with blood coming out. “Damn it…!”

“Are you okay?” Tobin asked, moving towards him, but he waved her away, and rolled onto his hands and knees.

“I’ll take it from here, Tobin.”

“Rick?! When did you get here?”

“Two days ago,” Rick Steves said. He sighed and looked up to the Tree. “Quite remarkable, really. I’d thought fundamental threads were indestructible, but he actually made a mark on it…” All looked up to the Tree, and saw there was a small cut in the bark. Rick offered his arm to Tobin, but before she could take it The Dubious Mechanic knocked him away, sending him down the hill.

“STEVES! You will pay for this!”

“Ease up, he hasn’t done anything!” Abby said, helping Rick up. Christie and Abby caught The Dubious Mechanic as he came down the hill, and kept him away from Rick.

“Two-” The Dubious Mechanic coughed with bloodiness again- “”Two people on this entire planet know me as The Dubious Mechanic and know my personal address- there’s no one else who could have sent the flash drive and that letter to Misses Ellis…”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Rick replied.

“And there’s only one who knows of the team, and what the Vatican would ask them to do if they found out about me coming here,” The Dubious Mechanic continued. There was a shift in the silence then, and all focused on Rick. “Why are you even here? Did you come to gloat?”

“Of course,” Rick said, now having a smugness to his voice. He backed away and walked up onto the hill a little ways, so the whole team could see him. “I know how you love to be a hero, Miss Heath,” Said Rick. “It’s what you and the team are trained for isn’t it?”

“I have never once felt like or thought of myself as a hero,” Tobin said. “I do what I do to keep the world safe.”

“And so do I,” Agreed Rick.

“Then why are you here?” Asked Alex.

“Well, as I said a moment ago, to gloat,” Said Rick with a smirk. He looked behind him up to the Tree, and then back down at the team as he unzipped his fanny pack. “But, I must confess, the real reason I’m here is so you could see me do _this_.” Taking out a fruit from his fanny pack, Rick Steves bit deep into it. The juice dribbled down his chin as he took more large bites, and in a moment, he had eaten the whole fruit. “This… this feels magnificent…!”

“His thread count’s gone off the charts!” Abby lamented.

“Wrong, Misses Wambach, it hasn’t gone off the charts. I’ve now become a fundamental thread, just like the Tree!”

“You know, this whole ‘becoming a god’ thing is starting to get _really_ fucking annoying,” Alex said, stepping forwards with a dark scowly face.

“Ohoho! You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Rick said mockingly. “I know how you and Miss Heath fancy yourselves god-slaying heroes, but me? No, I’m going to put an end to that. You see, Alex, I have become the first to realize true human potential. I’m not going to call myself a god, Alex- but I will call myself the first perfect human, and I will be the first mankind over all the world. And when I take my rightful place as the pinnacle of humanity, there will be no more gods. There will be no more so-called heroes apologizing over graves. There will only be men. If you want a place in the new world, you’re going to have to accept th-” Without warning a spear tipped with starry darkness shot forth, piercing Rick’s heart.

“HOLD HIM DOWN!” The Dubious Mechanic roared. Rick pulled out the spear just before he was tackled to the ground and Abby and Christie darted over. The Dubious Mechanic plunged his hand into Rick’s wound, pouring out all the dye he had left into it. When he found Rick’s heart he took hold of it and pulled with a mighty roar. And just as suddenly as the spear had pierced Rick, an arrow was woven from the grass by his head and lanced into The Dubious Mechanic’s eyeball. He fell back, and Rick threw Abby and Christie off.

“THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?! AFTER ALL I’VE DONE, THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?!” Rick bellowed, holding a hand to his chest. “Then so be it! When we next meet, there will be no mercy! And there will be! No! Survivors!” Rick Steves ascended in a spray of blood and trail of effervescent rainbowy light before he flew far away out of sight.

Alex looked around at the team, stunned. She then noticed Tobin kneeling beside The Dubious Mechanic, whose face was a mess of blood, apparently trying to weave his eye back together. “We… we can stop him, can’t we?” Alex said with small trembles in her voice.

“No…” The Dubious Mechanic replied weakly. “That was our best shot, before he was saturated with the Tree’s dye. Once he heals he truly will be immortal…”

“But, you were able to cut the tree, weren’t you?” Yael asked.

“It took me ten hours to make that small cut...” The Dubious Mechanic coughed, still more blood coming up. “Something tells me Steves won’t stand still for that long.”

“But, it can’t just end like this,” Alex complained. “Messi, we beat. Maradona, we’ve beaten. Kim Jong-Un, we’ve defeated. There- there has to be _something_ we can do…”

The team was silent for a while with grim ponderings before Kelley gasped. “The third! Back at Daneborg, I saw it for a moment before it disappeared!”

“You mean, the third True Ballon d’Or?” Asked Alex.

“Yes! It has to be out there somewhere!” Kelley replied with growing determinations. “And if there’s anything left that could stop Rick Steves, that’s it!”

“Then go…!” The Dubious Mechanic whispered. Alex looked down, and saw that he was barely breathing, his eyes almost closed. “If you think that’s the only other option, then you have to go for it…” The team looked to Coach Jill, who sternly nodded.

“Let’s head back to town and regroup before starting the search. Let’s go, double time!” Tobin tried to help up The Dubious Mechanic, but he pushed her away and mumbled something as he rolled onto his stomach. She looked at him for a moment before sighing and catching up with the team.

~oOo~

“Where would we even start?” Morgan asked, holding her chin in her hands as she looked at the map unrolled on the table.

“We start here,” Said Coach Jill. “There’s been some conjecture that all fundamental threads are linked in some way, and it could be that it traveled here.”

“Do you think it’s like the first?” Yael asked. “Pele could sense it, and said that it called out to him.”

Coach Jill glanced at Tobin. “That’s possible, and certainly worth trying.” She took a sip of her unicorn tears and sriracha drink before continuing. “No matter what we need to have some of us here to guard the Tree, but perhaps once we have studied it a few of us may leave to pursue the third True Ballon d’Or.” The team nodded with agreeances, and then Alex spoke up.

“But what will we do about Rick Steves?”

“We’ll have to personally stop him,” Coach Jill said. As she looked around at the team, they began to understand what she meant. “He’s had first-hand experience with us, and how we work. He’s had the luxury of sitting back and learning from the mistakes of Kim, Messi and Maradona. I… don’t think we should expect any direct actions against us. He’ll have time to play the long game now, so it’s very likely he’ll be taking small steps at the beginning.”

“Where do you think he’ll start?” Alex asked. “He has so many connections…”

“I think he’ll start here,” Megan spoke up. “Back at Daneborg, I remember he said something like, ‘when you travel, you learn your home country isn’t the only possible winning side’. He’s going to start here, with America.”

Coach Jill nodded with somberness, taking another sip of her drink. “Alright. Let’s finish eating and then we’ll head back to start with the Tree.”

It was only a moments later when they returned from the break at the diner, and made their way back through the park. “Guys!” Said Abby from farther up ahead in the forest. “He’s not here!”

“What do you mean?” Asked Alex, jogging to catch up.

“I mean he disappeared,” Abby explained, pointing to the ground. “There’s the blood on the grass from his hand and eye, but it just disappears a few feet away,” She finished with a shrug.

“Well, it would have been useful to have him in the discussion when we planned for Steves,” Coach Jill said. “However, there are other matters to focus on. Tobin, Abby, Alex: I want you three to focus on the Tree, and it’s thread and dye; see if you can find the third in the area.” They nodded, and Coach Jill looked around to the rest of the group. “Everyone else, let’s spread around the base to the hill and watch the forest until it’s time to split up and look for the third.” There were the yeses from the team, and everyone got into place.

“Where do we start?” Alex asked. “I mean… it’s a tree.”

“Just try to work it liked you sensed the cuts from a little while ago,” Tobin answered. Alex shrugged and put a hand to the Tree, and Tobin sat down next to her, and Abby walked around to the other side of the tree. Alex could see that the Tree had grown since she’d last seen it; it had started out just as tall as Tobin, but now it was a little taller than a basketball goal. Taking a deep breath, Alex closed her eyes and focused on the rainbowy threads that wove reality together, trying to get a sense of the Tree.

To her shock, she couldn’t, at first. She could sense all the different dyes and threads making up the clearing and the hill, but the Tree was with invisibleness to her senses, bro. “Wait…” She whispered quietly. As Rick Steves had flown away, he had trailed a fizzy, sparkly, rainbowy light. Alex realized she needed to go deeper. She looked and began to be able to tell the Tree’s dye from the rest of the forest, where it had a slight blending in of dye. “I think I can see what Rick meant, now…” Said Alex quietly.

“Meant about what?” Abby asked.

“Being a fundamental thread. His thread count didn’t go off the charts, it’s that he’s all woven with one thread.” Abby had some agreeing nods, and then Tobin stood.

“It’s so weird, though. Plants usually just have their threads dyed, like yarn.” With hesitances Tobin reached out and touched the Tree softly. “But this, it’s like a person, with their dye as more of a liquid thing, except it’s sap.”

“Hold on,” Abby said quickly. “You just said it’s like a person, right?” Abby focused on the Tree for a moment, then looked back over at Tobin. “I just now realized why its dye seemed so familiar…” Alex looked over, but Tobin was staring at the ground.

“Tobin? Tobin…! Why haven’t you said anything about this before now?!”

“I didn’t eat anything,” Tobin said with defensiveness. “I… could feel that I was trapped, somehow. All I did was climb out of the fruit, nothing more.” She looked up at Abby and Alex. “You guys know I can still get hurt.”

Alex relaxed a little bit as she remembered the tough battles since the forest had first appeared. “Well, I think I’ve got a feel for the Tree now. How about you two?” They nodded. “Then let’s get started.” They all took deep breaths, and began feeling for the thread that made up the Tree.

Tobin saw it was woven throughout the small hill and clearing. It took many concentrations, but she saw that it wasn’t a loop, like a normal person or object would be- the Tree was one thread going in and out, woven all through the clearing before leaving. “Guys… I think I found where the thread leaves here…”

“I did too,” Abby said. “It goes southeast,” She finished with a point.

“The one I found goes northeast,” Said Tobin.

“Was it like this hill and clearing?” Alex asked.

“No, it was just mostly a straight line,” Answered Tobin. “It’s not woven through anything like the Tree.”

“I guess this means we’re going to have to split up,” Said Abby with a shrug.

“Wait!” Alex said with puzzle piece thinkings. “What direction did Rick Steves fly off in?!”

“He flew… that way…” Abby said, pointing northeast.

“So that means he has a fifty percent chance of finding the third True Ballon d’Or before us,” Concluded Alex. “We need to get going _now_.”

“Coach Jill!” Called Tobin as they jogged down the hill…

~oOo~

“Where is it?” Julie asked, as they got their luggage at the airport.

“I lost track of it about ten minutes before we landed,” Tobin replied.

Julie did the math. “It’s still only a few miles away; I think we started circling before that.” Tobin nodded, and they got caught up with the rest of the team. As the team walked through the airport, Tobin thought of the path of the thread, and how it had wandered all around. It had gone North most of the way through Central America, before starting to wander around again once they got into the U.S.

“They’ve got a Starbucks here!” Said Kelley, pointing down the hall.

Coach Jill shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind some coffee.” The team headed for the shop, glad to be able to get some food after their long flights. But as they crowded into the shop, Julie noticed something on a newspaper stand…

“Guys, take a look at this.” She held up the paper.

“‘Steves Travel Forum Is Back On?’” Christie said.

“Then we’ve got to go there,” Tobin said with a good determination. “He has to know we won’t go away.”

“I agree,” Coach Jill said. “It’ll also be a good opportunity to see what direction he’s going in.”

“You ladies big fans of Steves?” Asked a middle-aged man who looked like he wanted to dress up like he was on a safari but didn’t want to fully commit to the outfit. “I’ve been watching him for years.”

“Oh, I guess you could say we’re interested in what he’s doing,” Alex replied.

“And we do travel a lot,” Added Tobin.

“I just flew in from Topeka to visit the in-laws,” The safari guy said, with a grin. “And boy my arms are tired!” A seven year old kid sighed and facepalmed, and there was a short silence of unbelief in the Starbucks. He cleared his throat and continued, “The wife says it’ll be a dull way to spend an hour, but the wife also doesn’t know I’m planning a trip to Paris for the ann-”

“Planning a trip where?” Asked the safari guy’s wife, a slightly younger woman with inexplicably awesome blond hair and normal clothes unlike her husband.

“Planning a trip to where it’s flora and fauna as far as the eye can see, dear.” Alex nodded at Tobin, it wasn’t a terrible recovery.

“As long it’s not to the Sahara again,” She said with a sigh. "You just need to let that go…”

“Well, I won’t keep you ladies. You all have a nice day!” The safari guy and his wife left the shop, and Christen cleared her throat and made her order.

“Do you think we’ll have a chance to talk to him?” Alex asked Tobin quietly.

“I think so, it is a forum kind of thing, after all.” Reasoned Tobin. “But what will we say?”

“Coach Jill said he’ll have time to play the long game, and that got me thinking- why don’t we force him to move up his schedule?”

“But if we force his hand, then he’ll probably out us, too,” Tobin whispered to Alex.

“Rick’s gotten closer to his goal than anyone else so far. It’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Alex said in a low voice. She and Tobin made their orders, and went to wait with the rest of the team.

“Do you have any ideas for the forum, Coach?” Asked Morgan.

“At the moment, my only one is to have Tobin stay behind and look for the True Ballon d’Or,” Coach Jill said with theorizingness. “There’s a small chance Steves may know where it is, and I don’t want him making a quick exit and snatching it up on his way out.”

“But, the team’s already down to a third,” Said Tobin. “If something happens we need to have everyone that we can there.”

“Finding the third True Ballon d’Or comes first,” Answered Coach Jill. Tobin sighed, feeling the laughings of evil over the table at hearing this decision.

“We should find some way to expose him,” Proposed Alex. “Someone with as many connections as him is going to have a few they would want to keep a secret, right?”

“While that’s a good idea, it will be hard to implement,” Coach Jill said. “Rick Steves was a fixture of the P.S.I. world for decades, and won’t be so easily rooted out. So for the forum, it’s out of the question, but that may be a long-term goal we could work towards.” Just then their drinks were finished, and Julie and Morgan went and got them.

As she sipped her coffee, Alex began to get an idea, one of dangerous action. She knew she couldn’t just do it, that she had to build up to it first. As the words of preparingness settled into place in her mind, the coffee began to energize her and she became nervous for the forum.

After getting their coffee, the team didn’t have long before they had to get to the forum. They checked into the motel, and had just enough time to shower and change before getting on their way. The forum was at a local park outdoors, and there was a stage set up. There was a good crowd gathered there, and the team squiggled their way to close to the front.

Rick wasn’t the first person out. As the man walked on stage, they could see it was… Ryan Seacrest! “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. THIS… is the Rick Steves travel forum. We’ve got a lot to get to today, and a lot of it wouldn’t be possible without the man himself, Rick Steves.” Ryan is interrupted by a polite burst of applause, and after a moment he continues. “Something that he has taught us is that travel is universal in both its need, and in its effect. So with that in mind, here is the introductory montage. Kieran, dim the lights…” There were a couple people that got the joke and laughed, and a video began to play on a large projector screen on the stage.

Alex’s thinkings turned like the wheels of a car during a drag race, the phrase Ryan said about travel bouncing around in her head. The intro video thingumabob had lots of places from around the world, with the music from Rick’s show in the background as there were pictures of him walking through streets and hiking. It ended with a picture of Rick kneeling in front of the Tree, with the quote from Mark Twain about travel written on the screen. As the video ended and Rick walked out on stage, Alex leaned over and whispered to Tobin, “Walk a little ways off to the side, and the first chance you get ask him where that tree he kneeled in front of in the intro video is from.”

Alex saw an understanding spark in her friend’s eyes, and Tobin nodded and stepped away. “Good evening, everyone! How are you doing?” Asked Rick. The audience applauded, and Rick smiled. Alex could see he looked slightly thinner, as if he’d lost a bit of weight. But other than that, to her he looked the same as in the forest. “Tonight’s theme is ‘destinations’. I’ll try to help you all decide where would be a great place to go to relax and enjoy yourselves, as well as a few places that would be great to go to to learn a few things. But first, I’ll take a few off-topic questions to open things up.”

There were a lot of people calling “Rick!” with hopings, but Tobin was being louder; Alex wasn’t used to hearing her friend shout so loud. Eventually Rick gave in, and pointed to her. “First, I just wanted to say the introduction video was great, but that last shot was really powerful. Where were that forest and tree in the picture from?”

Alex heard a few murmurs of agreeingness from the crowd, and saw the ghost of a frowny face pass over Rick’s face before his normal look was back. “Well, I’ve been doing some travel in South America recently, and if I remember correctly that shot came from a newly constructed wildlife preserve and park in Peru, where the Nazca desert once was.”

“Is the Nazca Forest real?” Asked a lady next to Tobin. “I’ve heard about it, but I’m not sure if it’s just some crazy story.”

“Oh, the forest is very real, and it’s one of if not the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. There is literally nothing else like it in the world; all other forests and monuments and mountains have been with us for hundreds or thousands or millions of years, but the Nazca Forest is new. There’s something almost religious about discovering a great and majestic beauty that arose from a barren place, finding life where there wasn’t any before.”

“Is that tree easy to get to?” Asked a man from further back in the crowd. Alex saw Rick glance at Tobin for a moment before answering the man.

“No, it’s a little off the beaten path.”

“What’s the rest of the park there like?” Asked the lady next to Tobin.

“It’s every bit as amazing. New species of all kinds are being discovered at an astonishing rate there, including some with no apparent links to any other living creatures or plants.”

“How big is the park?” Asked a lady out of sight to Alex’s right.

Alex saw annoyances lurking beneath Rick’s expression, and he answered, “It’s almost twentyfive-hundred square miles, so the park is a very big place. Currently, there are a number of hiking trails and campsites and small zoos set up, but there’s new construction still going on. It’s likely to take another year or so before it’s fully mapped and longer before it’s complete, but it’s still an incredible place to visit.”

There was a quick look of determinations on Rick’s face, and he began to start the happy and fun destinations part of the forum. It went a lot like asking about the tree had, with people asking different questions. The first city was Paris, which Tobin was familiar with. The next city was Rome, and the other one after that was a town in Germany called Bielefeld. A small remembering went off in Tobin’s mind, and she looked over to see if Alex remembered, too. She only saw thinkings of laser focus behind her eyes, and wondered what she was pondering.

After a while of talking about the town in Germany and how it was a hidden gem, Rick started the learning and culture part of the forum, and Tobin saw Alex raise her hand. Rick ignored her for a little bit, but no one else really had their hand raised for questionings, so he had to acknowledge. “Mister Steves, at the beginning Ryan Seacrest said how you taught us that travel is universal in its need and its effect, and I was just wondering what those things were.”

There was a brief looking of relaxation on Rick’s face before he answered. “Good question. Well, you see, the universal need for travel is that rapture of the open spaces, and of the high mountains and distant shores. I think there’s a beauty inherent in untamed and unrestricted nature that calls out to each of us. I think foreign culture is similar in a way, in that it’s a kind of landscape for your mind to explore, with all the different customs and languages replacing the mountains and fields. And just as almost every culture has explorers, almost every culture has or has stories of conquerors. You see, besides giving us contentment and awareness, travel also gives us a hunger. In older times this became land being claimed or explored, though today it’s more of an intellectual pursuit and manifests itself as souvenirs.”

Alex asked, “I’m still reasonably young, but I’ve done a lot of traveling. Would you say travel has different effects on people of different ages?”

“Oh, certainly. When you’re young it can be sort of traumatizing, as your world is just taking shape, and then here you are in this completely new place, and you don’t know how anything works or where things are. Then, once you start to get on in years, it can be exciting, and it’s when you start to feel the call, and when you get even further past that, is when travel might happen simply to break up monotony.”

Taking aim, Alex fired her question like a bullet with Rick’s name on it. “This more a silly hypothetical question, but going by what you just said, would all that mean that a person that lived for thousands of years would want to conquer the world and invade or take souvenirs from countries out of sheer boredom?”

There were a few people that laughed at Alex’s question, but the look on Rick’s face was one of a mighty rage that could melt fire, and it stayed for a little bit instead of being with fleetingness as the other looks. “That… would perhaps be oversimplifying it, but I can see what you’re getting at. Now, let’s get started on a destination to learn from: Tehran, Iran.” Rick nodded to someone offstage, and got started with talking about Tehran. As Tobin was listening, she felt someone grab her arm.

“Hey! Let go!” It was a big security guard looking person, wearing dark sunglasses. Tobin could see Alex was being pulled away, too. “What are you doing this for?!” Tobin yelled, as the guard pulled her away. Tobin used the Coiling Snake Technique, dropping down and twisting as she pulled the guard with her. He went rolling off to the side a little ways, and Tobin sprang up onto the stage. There was a tense staredown between her and Rick, with a feel of crackling lightnings between them. He lowered his microphone, and Tobin stepped forwards. “This is kind of a pretty big mistake on your part, Steves. All we did was ask questions, and you turned it into this.”

“I can afford to make a few mistakes, Tobin. But you? You’re just an insignificant little ant. One mistake and you’re gone.”

“No matter how long you live, you’re still only a man, Rick. And we were meant to be stewards, not rulers.” Tobin said, keeping eye contact with Rick.

“Ha! Even after your fights with Kim, you still don’t get it, do you? I don’t aim to be a tyrant, Tobin, I aim to be a liberator. The poor, the noble, the widows- we will all be kings! There will be no more tyrants, there will be no unworthy shouldering the burden of the weak! Throughout history only a few have even attempted this, and now that I have the means I won’t let anyone stop me from setting humanity free!” Rick yelled, pointing at Tobin. Then, he realized he was pointing at her with the same hand he had been holding the microphone with, and that Tobin was holding it up between them.

From the side Tobin saw someone rushing at her, and dodged as Ryan Seacrest launched a fierce clawing attack at her jugular. Tobin began to see than Ryan had a very kinetic and aggressive style that reminisced her of a wolf. “Tobin! Rick’s getting away!” She heard Julie call. With a glance, Tobin saw the rest of the team had fightings against the security guards, but had to keep her focus on Ryan. She countered his low swipe at her calf with a Shining Wizard, but Ryan had a good toughness and rolled away and sprang up. Morgan suddenly leapt up to her side, using her dye and reweaving the stage into an airy spring for a fierce lunging punch that knocked Ryan back through the speakers at the side of the stage.

“I can handle Seacrest! Go after Rick!” Tobin nodded and dashed away, getting around the stage in a moment. She couldn’t see Rick right away, and the parking lot was on the other side of the stage. Then, she looked up into the sky, and far away saw a trail of sparkly rainbowy light…

~oOo~

“...And that was when he got away,” Tobin explained. Coach Jill sighed, crossing her arms with deep thinkings.

“And you’re certain the third isn’t nearby?”

“Definitely,” Answered Tobin. “The thread continues out of town, but I couldn’t sense any concentration of it close to here.”

“I couldn’t either,” Abby added. “It just went East.”

“Then we’ll just have to continue tracking it,” Coach Jill said with a frowny face. “Christie, have you heard back from the others?”

“Last I heard from them, they had stopped in Hawaii on their way across the ocean. They haven’t had any roadblocks following the thread.”

“Good. And what about Shannon and the others staying by the Tree?”

“They’ve also been doing good,” Christie answered. “It’s been all clear down there, from what Ashlyn told me.”

There was a silence at the table of the hotel conference room, like the one of a dude who found out his girlfriend lied about the pregnancy test. Then like the same dude, Morgan asked, “So what are we supposed to do now? We’re all split up in different hemispheres, and Rick Steves is one step ahead. Again.”

Though they all knew there needed to be trackings of the Tree’s thread, there was another silence that stretched out like a rubber band made of steel.

“Asia,” Tobin said with suddenness. “So far the Tree’s thread hasn’t been too knotted up, so if it’s going across the Pacific then I bet it’s got to be somewhere in Asia.”

“It’d be a mistake to fight Steves over the third True ballon d’Or in Asia, though,” Said Julie. Alex gave her a small smile, but no one else really got it.

“That’s true,” Said Coach Jill. “Some of Steves’ strongest connections are in Asia. But if he’s already ahead of us and has it hidden, then he’s going to put it where he’s untouchable.”

“But where in Europe would that be, exactly?” Alex asked with great askings.

“Bielefeld!” Exclaimed Tobin.

“Wait…” Kelley said. “Didn’t he mention that at the travel forum? People would be all over it.”

“Exactly,” Alex said, catching on. “The place would be crowded with tourists, and uh- not that I watch his show, but- he usually advertises the less crowded spaces, so the places you’d think to hide it wouldn’t be empty.”

“A perfect cookie jar to put the cookie in, metaphorically speaking,” Megan added.

“And he’s mentioned it before,” Tobin continued. “Remember back when we were first going to hide the second True Ballon d’Or? Before the run-in with Kim, that’s where it was going to go. So if he needs to keep something safe, he’s going to hide it in Bielefeld,” Tobin concluded with resolutions.

Coach Jill nodded, checking her phone with plannings. “The next flight to the New York is in a little over an hour, so if we hurry we might be able to catch it and get out to Germany.”

“I’m ready to go,” Alex said the passion of a googolplex supernovas. The rest of the team had prepared noddings, and Coach Jill bought the tickets, homie.

~oOo~

Tobin continued floating through the sparkly rainbowy river, starting to understand how it worked. Red was the fastest color, and she could see clearest with violet, so she mostly went with yellow and orange. She couldn’t forget the other colors though, or she would lose track of the river and stop flying. She saw twinkly star lights along the way that kind of seemed familiar, like paintings turned into stars that sparkled with colors of invitingness. Slowly Tobin felt herself drifting out of the river, and tried to swim back into it, but she was yanked out.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” Rick Steves shouted, his hair sparkling with an anime orangeness.

“You know exactly what I’m doing,” Tobin replied. There was a pause as the windiness of the skies blew in hurricanes of anger between the two. “You’ll live forever, Rick. Just not in this world.”

“Fine! Then let’s settle this the traditional way!” A microphone appeared in Rick’s hand, and a spiffy rap beat began playing, and Rick began to rap with great epicness:

“First and last of my kind  
A brilliant mind  
All other emcees, I leave behind  
The rapture of my rhymes  
Relieves the blind, gives them new sight  
To seize the destiny of their lives  
I’m the one that takes them there!  
I am not your rolling wheel  
I am the highway my ways are not yours  
Your taste is bare, barren  
Bearing no fruit, I’ll leave your face  
Bare, barren, scared of the truth  
I’m in pursuit of liberation, I’m on the chase  
Stunting like Bolt, can’t be replaced  
You’re not even a hurdle,  
Not even on the track in the first place.”

Tobin was not used to doing rap, but knew she had to stop Rick, and waited for the track to loop around before beginning:

“First time on the scene, I stopped a ‘god’  
Second time on the scene, I stopped a ‘god’  
Third time on the scene, I stopped a ‘god’  
Fourth time on the scene, I stopped a ‘god’  
Notice the theme? You’re just a man, you won’t be a problem  
And I’m not on the track, I’m on the podium  
Rhymes so ill you should take Imodium  
First and last of your kind, there’ll be no others  
Your legend ends here, I got you covered  
I got you in sight, my trigger finger has an itch  
First true man? Well, you’re going out like a-”

“Are you okay, Tobin?” Asked Alex. “You kinda bumped into me really hard and then you just started mumbling in your sleep.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Tobin apologized. Something vague bothered Tobin, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“What were you dreaming about?” Alex asked with smilings.

“I was in a rainbow, and then Rick Steves started rapping, and-” Suddenly Tobin remembered and knew what was bothering her. “We’re going off the thread!”

“The…? Oh!”

“I could see it for a long ways away before I dozed off, and we had just gotten into France.”

“Maybe we’re just making a pit stop,” Alex proposed with scrunched eyebrows.

“That’s not it,” Tobin said quietly to herself… “Lean up and block the aisle for me,” Tobin whispered to Alex. Nodding, Alex sat up, and pretended to be reading her book. Tobin remembered the first, when Alex had called her to Daneborg, and used the same reweaving skill to put herself into the cockpit.

The sight that awaited her was one of many surprises. In the pilot’s seat was Ryan Seacrest, and the true pilot was stacked on top of the co-pilot, they both were hog tied with an expert rancher’s skill. Tobin picked up the copilot’s headphones and started whistling the tune of the Rebecca Black and Wiz Khalifa song. “I’ll never get tired of that hook,” Ryan said.

“It’s been number one on the charts for over a year for a reason,” Tobin replied with coolness. “What’s this big red button here do?”

“That’s the vaporize Tobin Heath button,” Joked Ryan.

“Aww. Makes me feel kinda special.”

“I hope you never feel special again.” Ryan said with an honesty, looking away from the controls to Tobin.

Tobin looked deep into Ryan’s eyes, having rememberings of what Rick said to her at the travel forum. “Love will always be special, Ryan; that’s something Rick doesn’t understand. What he wants to give the world is comfort, which isn’t all that bad, I guess, but real love takes effort, and when you’re comfortable effort is the least of your worries.” Tobin took a big breath. “Well, I’m off to Bielefeld. If you talk to Rick before me, tell him I love him.” With that, Tobin wove herself out of the airplane, holding her breath as she dove down with falconness. It took a moment, but Tobin still had the memory of her dream, and found out the rainbow she used to fly in it worked in the awake world, too.

At first it took a good concentration, but once she got used to the great fast winds, Tobin enjoyed it. There weren’t very many sparkly painting-stars along the way, but there was a line of them very far away that Tobin could feel she had to go to. Staying in the thread’s rainbowy river and using red, she zoomed off at high speed, rainbowy sparkliness trailing behind her. Tobin had always liked flying, with the old P.S.I. and with this new rainbow.

Though the time had been of a butterfly’s giggle, Tobin knew she had traveled far. She saw the painting-star sparkling ever closer now, and went back to using red, zooming with great speediness towards it. The scenery of the painting-star began to be clearer in its sparkles. She saw mountains, streets and buildings, Waldo, and even a place to get ice cream. As it got clearer and clearer, Tobin switched to indigo and then violet, when she saw a knot in the thread to her left. She used blue for a moment, then violet, and then with the suddenness of Bob Ross painting reflections on water the scene had a solidness and she had landed in a small slope on a mountain.

It was a little chilly, and a kite-flying type of breeze was blowing. The mountain had a normal simple prettiness of mountains to it, and Tobin began hiking up to a large rock she could sit on to rest. Once she got on the mostly flat top of the boulder and caught her breath, Tobin began to feel for the Tree’s thread, and the knot in it. It was to her right, now, so she got off the boulder and stepped with goatness over the mountainside towards it.

She didn’t notice it at first, but as she got closer to the knot, Tobin noticed a small shaking to the ground. At first it was like a drizzly rain on a roof, but then it became like of an unbalanced washing machine, and then like a semi truck rumbling over a bridge. She sensed the knot on the other side of the ridge, and crossed over it with carefulness; there was a small clearing out of the wind, with a small cave going into the mountain. With sudden knowledges, Tobin knew what she had come upon. “Come out!” She called with tough demandings. There was no answer, but instead an orange-y red glow started to come from the cave, and the shaking got tougher. “COME OUT!” Tobin yelled with a great loudness, but still there was no answer. Tobin found the Tree’s thread and focused on it, letting her golden light dye out into the mountain to help. But it was of a hard struggle! The Tree’s thread was already wiggling around, being pulled towards the knot. With a focusing, Tobin could could see it was being woven, and leapt into the Tree’s thread as of flying, but instead focused on pouring her dye into it. There was a fierce shudder like a newlywed dude who felt his mother-in-law breath down his neck, and Tobin felt herself flung up against the mountain at the edge of the clearing.

“WHY DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!” Rick Steves thundered mightily.

Tobin moved her hair out of her eyes and stepped forwards to meet Rick. “Why are you so scared?”

“Becau- what, scared? What are you talking about?”

“If almost getting your heart ripped out wouldn’t kill you, it’s hard to imagine anything else would. You’re reaching for more than you already need and have, Rick. Why? You say you won’t let me stop you, so why does it look like you think I will?”

Rick sighed, and three sparrows plopped down with deadness at his feet. “This isn’t me trying to become more than what I am, Tobin. You are not in my position, so you couldn’t understand. This is simply me becoming what I am and what man should have been since the beginning: universal! Not a stain or stray thread, but integral!”

“I can’t let you do that, Rick. Don’t you see what you’ve done to this mountain already?” Said Tobin, gesturing with great gesturingness at the rock and dirt scattered around the clearing.

“That’s a small price to pay.”

“For you, but not for the Earth. You’ve gone far enough.”

“Again, _you don’t understand_. You don’t have the vision to know what is too far for me!”

“And you’ve stopped looking to see what’s too far for the Earth!” Retorted Tobin. There was a feeling of great apocalypses in the air. “You’ll live forever, Rick. Just not i-” Before she could finish Rick Steves rushed her, attacking with great ferocity. Tobin could see Rick was fast, even faster than Alex, and even faster than Lionel Messi had been. He was using the same wolfly style that Ryan Seacrest had. It was one that struck at weak spots with counter attacks- in fact, it remembered Tobin of some bits of the style that Kim Jong Un used in his duels with her. Tobin used her best fight thinkings, doing good with her circle walk, sticking in sneaky jabs and kicks in Rick’s blind spots- but he was very fast, and she didn’t have time for anything else. For short moments that felt like theaters of war unfolding and evaporating, they dueled like two kings alone on a chess board that were actually just Beyblades with velcro rims around colossal iron engines of fury, dawg.

With so much going on so fast, Tobin began to think Rick was only that- fast. He had an okay skill, or she would have beaten him already, but he was getting away with things Tobin would never let past her if someone slower tried them. This did not make Tobin happy, and she began to strike with her whole angers. She knew Rick could tell this change, and that he knew her style well, so she broke from her flow and just went for a very obvious punch right to Rick’s face. It connected, and with no warnings the duel became as of a fist fight with a bearded lady’s ugliness, with powerful and angry punches being thrown around like the decrees of an evil dictator.

It was like popcorn being popped by an evil clown, their duel. After another tough punch to Rick, he stopped and backed away. “That’s it, enough playing around! As the Tunisian hot wives say, you haven’t seen anythi-” Tobin kicked Rick in the nads, as she wasn’t about to wait for an immortal opponent to get even stronger. She hit him with a knee to the head so beautiful Shinsuke Nakamura spontaneously started singing Queen, and knelt down to give punchings to Rick’s face. He put his near hand up to block as anyone would, and Tobin seized it and rolled back into an armbar.

Rick struggled against it for a moment, and kept his toughness, so he could roll backwards and onto his feet. He tried to barrel roll spin and slam Tobin against the ground, but she let go so the he just flopped onto his back, and sat down into an armbar on his other arm. She wrenched it back as far and hard and fast as she could, and heard yell a certain French curse word. "Eh bien, votre mère avale!" She replied. With horror movie-ness, Rick rolled away from her onto his stomach. A quick thought went through Tobin, and she slipped under Rick’s other arm and pulled his neck towards her, while keeping hold of his hurt arm with her legs.

Rick laughed, “Do you really think this is enough to stop me?” Tobin answered by pushing away with her legs and pulling Rick’s neck as hard as she could, with meaty pops sounding out like gunshots from inside a dream. Rick screamed with the angry pain of an overthrown emperor, and was able to slip his head out of Tobin’s grasp with a cosmic eelness. Rick tried to roll forwards, but Tobin stuck him with a back elbow to his lumbar, and curled in tight for a rear naked choke, yelling as she kept the hold and stretched herself out.

Wobbling up, Rick lurched sideways to send Tobin crashing into the mountain. He crumbled down, and for a moment it was as if they were a knot trying to untangle itself, with a cartoony dust cloud of fighting. Somewhere along the way they separated, and Tobin stayed on Rick with relentlessnesses, ignoring his punch and hitting him with her very fastest and hardest elbow strike, the blow connecting with his orbital bone like a vengeful meteor of extinctions. Rick flopped back like a raggedy doll, his body folding up like a piece of used tissue paper as he hit the ground. But even as Tobin watched, she saw Rick’s sinews and tendons and such righting themselves, and knew she had to act fast.

Again thinking of the first, as of when Alex called her to Daneborg, Tobin reached out for the rainbowy threads of reality, weaving open a pathway for Alex and the rest of the team on the plane, calling them to her. She felt a gust of wind, and felt twinkly painting-stars approaching, and then the team was there. “Tobin!” Alex shouted, rushing over to her friend’s side and giving her a brief hug.

“What’s going on?!” Coach Jill asked as she climbed up to the small clearing.

“I have him down, but we need to do something quick,” Tobin said, suddenly feeling very hurt and tired.

“Seal him under the mountain,” Alex said, with a frowny intensity. “No matter what, it should take a while for him to-” She was interrupted by a trembling of the ground, and all looked and saw Rick floating upwards, ethereal rainbowy threads suspending and blowing about him.

Rick’s voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. “No more. NO. MORE! This farce is getting to be like the Soul Society arc, and it is time I end it!” Rick became upright, and his head twisted and wriggled as he got everything back in place. “Is this what you wanted?! Is this what you came to see?!” Rick thundered with trumpetness.

“There’s only one more thing I have to say to you, Rick,” Tobin said, shuffling forwards. “Don’t forget your humanity. As long as there are people like you, there will be people like us who will try to stop you.”

“Humanity? _HUMANITY_?! Just who the Hell do you think you are?!”

“I’m Alexandra Patricia Morgan you son of a bitch, and I’m the one who’s going to put an end to you.” Alex stepped in front of Tobin and with great speed let her dye out into the clearing, weaving the grass behind Rick into spears that lanced forwards into him as of mini lightning bolts. Rick growled rtrrr and and shook for a second, but then a frown came across his face. He was trying to do as Alex had done, but was being resisted by Tobin. She snuck in weaving a small bit of rock and dirt into a dart that dug into Rick’s back, but that was all she could manage, as she nearly lost control of the clearing. Bit by bit the others began to recognize this and let out their dye into the mountain, trying to help Tobin. Rick’s power only seemed to grow, crashing against them like a tsunami of terror playing Red Rover. With abruptness time seemed to slow, and the trembling of the ground turned stronger like of a butterfly heart trying to escape a net, the team stumbling before everything around them exploded, homie.

When the dust settled, the team found themselves in a rubbly crater with vastness, lower than they had been. “Is everyone okay?” Coach Jill asked.

“I think so,” Meghan said, shaking out her ankle. Tobin was still awake and breathing, but her eyes were closed.

“Are you alright, Tobs?” Asked Alex, crawling over to give Tobin a hug.

“Took... more out of me than I thought…” Tobin said quietly.

There was a silence like a montage’s music was missing, and after it went on for a few minutes the chorus of I Believe In A Thing Called Love started playing. All were looking around with surprises, then Coach Jill looked down at her pocket and pulled out The Dubious Mechanic’s phone. “The Hell is this thing made out of…” Coach Jill said to herself before answering the call. “Hello?”

“Misses Ellis, I presume?”

“Oh! Yes, Your Holiness. This is she.”

“Good. I’ve finally received a moment to make this call, that video… Skype? I think- conference took so long to set up, and then- ah, forgive me. How is the team?”

Coach Jill sighed. “Well… things have been better, but we’re all in one piece.”

“Ah. And the Tree?”

“Still intact, as far as I know. I haven’t been there personally in several days.”

“What was the cause for travel?”

“Rick Steves, Your Holiness. He’s eaten the Fruit, and has begun to take steps to set up a shadow government.”

There was silence on the pope’s side for a good while. “Well. On my end the conference went remarkably well. Bartholomew made his case, and a good number of those in the conference already show signs of supporting him in the vote. We may reach a decision as soon as the next conference. I think Mattheiu said he had another one scheduled for tomorrow, so I will likely call again around this same time.”

“That’s a relief,” Coach Jill said.

“Ask him,” Tobin began, leaning up off Alex’s knees. “Ask him if he knows anything about where the third True Ballon d’Or is.” Coach Jill nodded, and relayed this to the pope, putting him on speaker phone.

“Currently, I’m unaware of the precise location, but I believe it would be pertinent to disclose that is has been confirmed all fundamental threads are so similar as to be identical. At the moment the only place I can recall that it is certainly not is The Spool, in Israel.”

“Well, is there anyone who could help us find it?” Alex asked. “Um, pun completely unintended, but we’re literally just grasping at stray threads here.” After a moment, Pope Francis replied.

“There is a man who may be able to-” The pope said something to someone else nearby him, then came back. ‘There is a man from your country who should be able to assist you; he was very useful in recovering the original manuscript of Shocking Swerve after it had been lost for decades.” Another pause of briefness, and the pope spoke again. “I will send you his number shortly. I apologize, Misses Ellis. I am busier than I thought and must go.”

“Thank you for the call, Your Holiness.”

“You are welcome. Goodbye.” Just a bit later, and The Dubious Mechanic’s phone sounded with the scene change thingy from Law and Order. Coach Jill opened the text, and made that “nah dawg, you gotta be pullin’ my leg” face.

Morgan looked over Coach Jill’s shoulder, and had the same reaction. “Really?”

“No one would suspect Rick Steves of being who he is,” Coach Jill said to Morgan with a shrug. “Well, ladies, let’s head back into town. We’re going to need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.” The team nodded, and began to hike down what was left of the mountain.

~oOo~

Alex took her seat next to Tobin as Coach Jill put the phone in the projector device. “Is everybody ready?” She asked, looking around the hotel conference room. The team nodded, and Coach Jill made the call. All waited for the person to pick up, then like waking up from drinking in Mexico, Ken Jennings appeared on the projector screen.

“Hello?” Ken asked, looking at his screen.

“We can see you,” Coach Jill confirmed.

“You said you had a few questions…”

“Yes, and thank you for your help. First, I wanted to know if there’s any way that different fundamental threads might be attracted to each other.”

“Yes. It’s not magnetism, per se, but has a similar principle of currents, and the dye behaves… like blood, sort of. The field emission comparison would take hours to go over, so again, the short answer is yes. Now, what that would look like is a concentration of dye, and-” Ken ruffled through his papers underneath the camera until he found the picture. “-The dye of fundamental threads has a strengthening and revitalizing effect on the surrounding area.”

“So it’d look like a forest?” Alex asked.

“A forest is one possibility,” Ken nodded. “It could also be coral, boulders, maybe even local wildlife.”

“What would happen if a fundamental thread was woven around and through another one?” Tobin asked, looking at the table.

“Hmm, now that’d be something. If there was a high osmosis rate it’s possible other organisms around them would be affected by hypertrophy, which could cause all sorts of… unpleasant problems physically; the flora surrounding them might grow at a visible pace… that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Dye oversaturation isn’t something that’s really been explored yet,” Ken said with gesturings, “But the closest thing we have to it in nature has noticeable signs. They’re called seams, appropriately enough. They occur along mountain chains, fault lines, and ocean trenches, et cetera. See, due to the threads kind of zig-zagging or having a wave-like path, there’s a lot of dye in the area, and a small shift in that arrangement can cause large scale events. So, basically, I guess weaving two fundamental threads would result in a phenomenally devastating chain of natural disasters.”

“What would happen if you wove a basket underwater?” Meghan asked.

“Nothing, the league’s been disbanded for years,” Ken said, completely serious. There was a short silence, and he cleared his throat.

Tobin looked up to the projector. “Where are the nearest seams?”

“You’re probably wearing a few,” Ken said with a smile. Christie sighed, and Ken cleared his throat again. “Well, you guys are right on top of one right now. Off to your northwest there’s one in Iceland that goes straight through Krafla, and North there’s a long one along the coast of Norway, and East there are a couple along the border with Russia.”

Tobin looked over to Coach Jill, and nodded. “I think we have something to work with now. Thank you, Mister Jennings.”

“No problem,” Ken said, tapping his chest with his fist twice and then doing the peace sign. “You ladies keep it real. I’m about to go experience some burrito sunshine.” Ken leaned forwards and signed off, and the projector screen went blank. “Burrito sunshine?” Julie mouthed to Meghan.

“East?” Coach Jill asked Tobin.

“Maybe eventually, but the thread goes southeast first. I think we need to go somewhere along the eastern bank of the Adriatic.”

“Alright. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Croatia, so we’ll head there before going further. Let’s stay here for a bit longer and then take the red-eye out. We can’t give up now, so stay strong! Team on three: one, two, three, team!” They shouted with Coach Jill, ready for the things of danger.

~oOo~

Most of them fell asleep on the flight there. With so much travel and action, it was of mostly an unavoidable, really. Tobin was awake though, and was promising herself she would not drink so much coffee ever again.

She looked out of the window for most of the time, trying to keep up with the Tree’s thread. Ever since her duel with Rick on the mountain, it kept getting easier to do so- when the flight had gone away from loosely following the thread, she could tell the thread had curved away and would be coming back soon. They were following it again, continuing on down the coast of the sea next to Italy.

Though Tobin had many jitters of the coffee, the sparkling that caught her attention was of no hallucinations. She checked the Tree’s thread, to make sure. There was the sparkle of the painting-star in Bielefeld, and then there was this, she was super certain of it this time. It wasn’t of a knot that had weavings of jumblyness, but of nature’s regular simple goodness, even from so far it was of looking through a kaleidoscope into another world.

As fast as she could, Tobin checked where they were going to land, again. It was tough, but she guessed it would be far enough away from the third True Ballon d’Or they would need to drive a while. Her coffee rushings began to turn into normal ones, and she decided to send a group text to the team. _“I’ve found it. Be ready to go when we land. Or before; but probably after.” ~Tobin_

After a moment of gazing out of the window later, Tobin saw she had a text from Coach Jill. _“Are you sure?”_

 _“Absolutely,”_ Tobin texted back. _“It’s a decent ways from where we’re landing, but I could do what I did to bring you to Bielefeld for us to get there, I think.”_

 _“We’ll be landing in about an hour, and between that and customs and luggage, I think it’d be a worthwhile shortcut to go now.”_ Tobin saw Coach Jill forward the text to the team. Poking Alex in the shoulder, she waited for her friend to come awake.

“Serv- ...oh. What is it, Tobin? I was kinda taking a nap.”

“I found the third True Ballon d’Or.”

“Seriously?!” Alex whispered. Tobin nodded, and showed Alex her texts with Coach Jill. Alex sat with thinkings for a little while, then looked over at Tobin. “He has to be the last one. There can’t be anyone else like Rick, or Messi or Maradona, or Kim. We’ve got to stop this once and for all.”

“I’ve been thinking about that too...” Tobin said, looking down at her knees. “I think that as long as the Tree is around, there will be people like Rick- and less moral ones, too- who will want to take advantage of it.”

“But, The Dubious Mechanic is gone. We don’t even know if he’s alive or not, and we wouldn’t be able to take down the Tree without him.”

“We should be able to do something about it with the third. Maybe not cut it, but definitely weave it out of shape.”

“I guess you’re right,” Alex agreed. “...But what about the pope? He didn’t get specific about what was going to be done with the Tree, and he’ll be calling us later today. What would we tell him?”

“That the Tree is no longer a problem,” Tobin answered with determinations. Her eye’s corner had catchings of her other teammates getting their carry-on down from above them. “Well, no matter what, we’ll do it together, right?”

“Definitely,” Said Alex. “Promise?” Tobin nodded, and shook pinkies with Alex. They went to get their luggage, and Coach Jill pointed them up towards first class, which was mostly empty. They crouched behind the seats in the back row, and Tobin focused on the Tree’s rainbowy thread, opening a path to the third True Ballon d’Or. There was a feeling of freefalls with simultaneousness of a great approaching. The team stumbled with their landings, but recovered and found themselves on a mountain.

The third True Ballon d’Or was of a bright sun to Tobin’s senses, with a kaleidoscope sparkliness. “It’s right up ahead! Let’s go!” Tobin pointed.

“FORWARDS!” Coach Jill urged, and Tobin led them up. Though they were only wearing normal shoes, they moved with expertness, the rocks and grass not troubling them. They had a good swiftness, and made it over the ridge of the slope in only a couple minutes, and Tobin saw a sort of crease where it met up with the main slope. There was a cave there, with a red light of glowyness coming from it! Tobin ran even faster, and could hear Alex running right beside her.

The slope leveled out some near the cave, so it was more like a spatula instead of a wedge shape. But right as the cave came within reach there was an explosion! “NO! NO, NO _NO_!” Rick shouted with a voice of great thunders. “You still haven’t given up?!” He said, levitating out from the cave.

“I could ask you the same question,” Said Alex.

“There was a time when we were allies,” Rick said with the bitterness of a dude whose girlfriend sold his old Atari to buy a PS4. “But when you learn of my goal, what do you do? You TRY TO STOP ME! I AM NO TYRANT, I AM OFFERING FREEDOM!”

“And we’re here to make sure the world has the freedom to choose freedom,” Tobin said.

“None of this is just a simple aim-and-shoot solution like you make it out to be!” Said Rick, pointing at Alex. “The previous times, you caught me when I was weak, and didn’t understand the burden of this power. I know it now, and one final time, I will give you a choice- join me, or die on this mountain.”

“Well, guys,” Tobin said, looking around at the team. “Looks like we picked a beautiful hill to die on.” With no warning Tobin dove into the Tree’s thread, using red to speed at Rick as fast as she could. “Triple Punch!”

Alex hadn’t even blinked, and she didn’t see Tobin move. There was a great wind from her and Rick’s duel, which was on a new level beyond anything she’d seen from her friend. Suddenly remembering there was more to do, Alex ran into the cave as fast as she could. Without having to look she could feel the presence of the third True Ballon d’Or. She was drawn to it, and once its golden galaxyness came in view her hand stretched out the the True Ballon d’Or floated into her palm. It gave her a great shockings of pure power, like inhaling a thunderstorm. Her hands trembled with its strength for a moment, and then Alex gulped down her nervousnesses, and went back out towards the mountain. As she was holding the True Ballon d’Or Alex felt its dye swirling around, and recognized now how Tobin was being so fast. Alex closed her eyes, and with a great focus swam into the True Ballon d’Or’s dye, her eyes opening up to the colors of Tobin and Rick’s duel. Not sure if it would work, she waited for a second, and then let out violet strands to wrap around Rick.

“NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Rick roared. Tobin darted in with one last punch, sparkly and bubbly rainbowyness cascading from Rick’s mouth and eyes and ears and nose and anus and urethra and nipples upon impact. His orifices leaking an iridescent ichor, Rick stared deep into Tobin’s eyes with the hate of a someone who got swept by the F.E.A.R. strategy in Pokemon. “When the world turns in on itself, cancerous with war and bigotry, I want you to remember this moment. Remember that you had a chance stop all of that. And _you. Failed_.”

Wiping away the trickle from the corner of her mouth, Tobin nodded and sighed, and looked into Rick’s eyes. “I forgive you.”

“Tobin, I’m not sure if I can manage this next part on my own…” Alex said. She held out the True Ballon d’Or for Tobin, who laid her hand on it as Rick ascended into the air. As he rose ever faster and higher, Tobin sensed an intention of a distant coolness from Alex, and understood. With the True Ballon d’Or’s power, she opened up a path to the heart of the moon, an infinite rainbowy road. On and on the True Ballon d’Or’s power stretched out, until Rick was ensconced in rock and shadows, and the moon closed up around him.

There was a sense of a rainbowy haze around Alex, that she was floating in it. She looked over and saw Tobin still there, and nodded to her. With the True Ballon d’Or’s threads they reached far around the world, other threads calling out to their search as if saying hello with butterflies and roses. It was of not like dealing with Rick, as Tobin did not open up a road this time, and the stretch was tough for their mentalness. They felt the True Ballon d’Or’s power being drawn to something, and though they couldn’t see it with physicalness, they knew they had finally found the Tree. They each took an end of its thread, and worked it down and away to deep below the ground. It was a toughness, like swimming in Play-doh, but the Tree did unweave itself from its shape, becoming a coil that spread out under the Nazca Forest.

With the wakings of a dream of falling, Tobin and Alex’s minds came back to the mountain. “Tobin? Alex?” Coach Jill asked, walking over.

Tobin and Alex looked at each other, the realizings of the things they had just done weighing in their chests like of a giant lit coal, and then they looked at the ground between them. “I, I’m fine,” Alex answered Coach Jill. “Do you know where the third True Ballon d’Or went?”

“It faded away,” Said Yael. The other team members nodded with agreeances.

“Where’s Rick?” Asked Meghan.

Tobin looked up to the sky, and found the moon. “There,” She said with pointings. The team looked at Tobin, not sure if she was being serious. There was a silence that stretched out, when Coach Jill’s new phone rang.

“Hello? ...IT WHAT?! Sorry, could you say that again, Shannon? ...oh my… Well, it’s something we’ll have to tell him about. Alright. Talk to you later.” Coach Jill looked up at the team. “The Tree is gone.”

“What?” Yael said with stammerings. “You mean, just- _gone_?”

“We could feel it, too.” Alex said.

“Because,” Tobin said, standing up, ‘We did it.” Alex sighed, closing her eyes. “Call me whatever you want, but I wasn’t going to let another Rick Steves happen. Someone more willing to openly control things might have stumbled onto it, and then think of where we’d be.”

“But, that wasn’t your decision to make, Tobin!” Coach Jill said.

“It wasn’t my decision to turn into a tree either,” Tobin replied.

“This isn’t about what we deserve!” Alex said, standing up. “I mean, I’m not gonna claim to know better than anyone else, but I think growing and living and just _life_ is about what you _earn_.”

“Fine then!” Said Coach Jill, throwing her hands up. “But what are we going to tell the pope?”

“The truth,” Tobin said, looking around at the team. “We’re here, and you guys are safe and sound, and right now that’s all I care about.” Tobin took a deep breath, and looked off into the distance. “For today at least, I think, Heaven can wait.” Tobin began to walk away, and Alex looked around at the team and followed Tobin, putting her arm around her shoulder. Though the rest of the team knew there was much to say and explain, their angers lessened as Tobin and Alex got farther away, and before long they started walking after them.

 

 

**THE END**


End file.
